edgeio
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Edgeio was a Web 2.0 classifieds startup co-founded in 2005 by Keith Teare (CEO) and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, with a founding technical team of Matt Kaufman and Vidar Hokstad. Launched in February 2006 after a beta period, it aggregated classified ads published on blogs and feeds: anyone who tagged a post 'listing' would have it automatically picked up into Edgeio's centralized, open marketplace, which others could build applications on. It raised $1.5 million in angel capital from investors including Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, and the RSS Investors Fund, and launched Classified Boards with AdStar in February 2007.
02 / edgeio FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Edgeio ran out of money. As Search Engine Land reported at the shutdown, the site was targeting a global audience but was fundamentally local — and local is notoriously hard for a VC-funded startup to monetize: gaining critical mass of users or advertisers in a fragmented market takes a marathon, not the 'three years and out' sprint VCs demand. It also faced entrenched competition from Craigslist and a resurgent Oodle. The board voted to shut down operations in December 2007.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Co-founded
Keith Teare and Michael Arrington co-founded Edgeio in 2005, raising $1.5 million in angel capital.
- Launched
Edgeio launched in February 2006, aggregating blog-classified ads tagged 'listing' into an open marketplace.
- Classified Boards
Edgeio launched Classified Boards in February 2007, a major partnership with AdStar on its marketplaces platform.
- Shut down
In December 2007, after a final board meeting, Edgeio decided to shut down operations and entered the TechCrunch DeadPool, having run out of money.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Edgeio held a final board meeting in December 2007 and voted to shut down operations.
- 02
The company was placed in the TechCrunch DeadPool after running out of money.